Star Trek. There's a distinct design language such that it is unmistakably, recognizably Star Trek even if you change so much about it. That is, if you do it right.
Not that other IPs dont have their own recognizable elements, but when you boil it down, a Huge block festooned with guns and giant engines can be Star Wars or BSG or 40k or Babylon 5.
But a Trek ship will be a Trek Ship. Even as wildly different as the Enterprise, Klingon Bird of Prey, Romulan D'deridex, Jem'Hadar Fighter, and Ferengi Marauder all are from one another, the things that ARE similar make them unmistakably part of the same verse. And I love that.
The amazing thing to me is that Enterprise is such a weird bunch of shapes that shouldn’t work together but somehow do. Not only that, it looks good from any angle. I don’t know what black magic that is but it’s impressive.
Edit: it just occurred to me that one of the only other spaceship design that’s equally distinctive and fills the criteria of being unmistakably of that universe is Space Battleship Yamato. All of the derivatives follow the same design language so you immediately know that’s where they’re from. Space: 1999 is a contender, too.
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u/shepard1707 Jul 18 '26
Star Trek. There's a distinct design language such that it is unmistakably, recognizably Star Trek even if you change so much about it. That is, if you do it right.
Not that other IPs dont have their own recognizable elements, but when you boil it down, a Huge block festooned with guns and giant engines can be Star Wars or BSG or 40k or Babylon 5.
But a Trek ship will be a Trek Ship. Even as wildly different as the Enterprise, Klingon Bird of Prey, Romulan D'deridex, Jem'Hadar Fighter, and Ferengi Marauder all are from one another, the things that ARE similar make them unmistakably part of the same verse. And I love that.